According to the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, part of the contract between the Czech Republic and the Holy See, which was approved by the government of Petr Fiala in 2024 and subsequently passed by the Chamber of Deputies, is in conflict with the Czech constitutional order. Judge Zdeněk Kühn announced the decision of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic on Wednesday. The proposal for review was submitted by a group of senators who had doubts about it, and President Petr Pavel was also critical of the contract. The ratification of the document cannot be completed until the contradiction is removed, informs the correspondent of TASR in Prague.
- The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic declared part of the contract with the Holy See unconstitutional.
- The court’s decision prevents the ratification of the treaty from being completed until it is modified.
- Articles on confessional secrecy and cultural heritage were declared unconstitutional.
- The regulation of the secret of confession unfairly favors the Catholic Church over other churches.
- Cultural heritage provisions limit public access and scientific research.
According to the court, the conclusion of this type of contract does not conflict with the sovereignty of the Czech Republic and therefore did not mark it as unconstitutional as a whole. The senators contested eight articles of the treaty, the court declared as unconstitutional article 4 concerning confessional secrecy and article 7, which talks about making cultural heritage accessible.
According to the court, the section on confessional secrecy is contrary to the neutrality of the state and the prohibition of discrimination. According to the court, it provides the Catholic Church with privileged protection of the confessional secret without exception.
The Constitutional Court pointed out that the contracting parties understand the meaning of recognition of the confessional secret differently. The government argued that the treaty does not enshrine absolute confessional secrecy and Article 4 corresponds to the current legal situation, the interpretation of the Holy See is the opposite. According to the court, the affected part of the contract is not unconstitutional because it extends the secrecy of confession beyond the scope of the law, but because it does so only in relation to the Catholic Church, and the existing Czech legal order would apply to other churches. This mainly concerns the duty of clergy to prevent a crime.
Article 7 says that the churches will make their cultural heritage available under the conditions set by them. The court considers it unconstitutional because it contradicts the right of access to cultural wealth and the freedom of cultural scientific research. The Czech Republic is one of the last European countries that does not have regulated relations with the Holy See by agreement. A similar agreement was approved in 2002 by the government of then Prime Minister Miloš Zeman. However, the Parliament did not ratify it because, according to him, it was disadvantageous and violated the equality of churches.
